DIXON – The last time LaSalle-Peru played at Lancaster Gym, its season ended. On Wednesday night, the Cavaliers avenged that loss to Dixon.

L-P weathered rallies by the Duchesses in both sets of their nonconference match to pull out a 27-25, 25-18 victory, a little more than nine months after the regional semifinal loss in Dixon.

“It’s great to win, especially in this game, because it’s such a rivalry game,” Kelsey Frederick said. “We lost to them first round [of regionals] last year, and I know we wanted revenge for that.”

“I think coming back from last year, that hard loss against them in the regional first round, I was excited to play – we all were excited tonight,” Aubrey Duttlinger added.

The Cavaliers (14-1) led by as many as seven points in the first set, and were up 21-15 before Dixon (7-2) came back. A kill by Solis Thompson and back-to-back aces by Micki Worrell set the tone for a 10-3 run that ended with three straight Izzy Queckboerner kills to put the Duchesses ahead 25-24.

“I think it was just our energy. I think we all just wanted the same thing, and so we all wanted to fight for that. It was a team effort,” Leah Carlson said about the comeback. “We were all doing the jobs we were supposed to, and we were all just one as a team. It’s a lot of trust that we’ve gained through the past three years that we’ve played together. That definitely helps.”

But a Duttlinger kill evened the set at 25, then a pair of errors by Dixon ended the opener.

“That’s a part of volleyball; teams are going to have those runs, so I think just kind of expecting them and taking it as a team and trusting each other, I think we did a really good job of that tonight,” Duttlinger said. “I think we did a better job today of moving around the ball, really focusing on what needed to done rather than what’s going on around us, just focusing on ourselves and the first ball to the setter.”

L-P started off the second set hot, building a 23-11 lead thanks to strong net play from Frederick, Duttlinger, Drew Depenbrock and Maggie Boudreau.

But again, Dixon refused to go away. Kills by Rayven Mowery around a Presley Lappin ace ignited a seven-point surge that was capped by a Carlson kill and another Lappin ace as the Duchesses pulled within 23-18.

“I think it’s just lots of communication between all of us, being on the same page,” Lappin said. “Communication on where we’re setting, what shots they’re taking, when it’s [coming down the] line, when the rolls are open, just digging deep and learning how to push points.”

The Cavs set Duttlinger for her final kill to stop the run, then an Anna Riva spike ended the match.

Duttlinger led L-P with nine kills and seven digs, while Frederick finished with eight kills and three blocks. Emma Jereb dished 13 assists, Riva added four kills, eight digs and eight service points, and Aubrey Urbanski chipped in nine assists and six digs. Boudreau had three kills, Depenbrock added three blocks and a kill, and libero Karmen Piano had six digs.

“Definitely, I think just communicating, trying to calm everyone down. I think our circle [huddle] is the main thing that we incorporated more this year, just making sure we settle down and really breathe through everything and come back strong,” Frederick said about responding to Dixon’s runs. “I feel like our serve receive was great; yeah, we had some errors, but we did really good with hitting our target. And then just our setters putting the ball in a spot where our hitters know it’s coming and can hit it hard and put it down.”

Carlson led the Duchesses with seven kills and nine assists, and Lappin added 10 assists, 10 service points, three aces and four digs. Queckboerner spiked five kills, Thompson added three more, and Morgan Hargrave had four kills, seven digs and three assists. Worrell had five digs to go with her two aces, and libero Yui Santos chipped in four digs.

“I have a lot of confidence in us that even though we may get down in some games, we’ll be able to pull through,” Lappin said. “We definitely had good comebacks both sets, we just couldn’t pull through. L-P’s a great team, they’re just really good.”